| Director | K. V. Anand |
|---|---|
| Genre | political thriller film |
| Runtime | 165 min |
| Country | India |
| Budget | ₹14 crore |
Ashwin Kumar, a photojournalist working for the private newspaper Dina Anjal, witnesses Naxalites robbing a bank and manages to photograph them. When he tries to escape, he is stopped by Renuka "Renu", who assumes he is the culprit and helps the robbers take his camera. Having secured the camera's memory card, he shows the police the photographs. The police identify everyone except the gang leader, who is wearing a mask. At his office, Ashwin again meets Renu, who has newly joined as an article editor. He slowly falls in love with Renu. Another employee Saraswathi "Saro" also has feelings for Ashwin, who does not reciprocate.
Settled in her new job, Renu writes a cover story about a politician Aalavandhan, describing his attempt to marry a minor. Enraged, Aalavandhan barges into the newspaper office and berates Renu. The audio recording of her interview disappears (courtesy of Aalavandhan), and she is fired for falsified reporting. At midnight, Ashwin discreetly photographs Aalavandhan actually engaging in child marriage. The story with the photographs is printed, and Renu reciprocates Ashwin's love. Meanwhile, Vasanthan Perumal, an engineer and recent graduate, strives hard to enter politics by contesting the upcoming election. He is contesting against more experienced politicians who bribe voters by giving them freebies and money.
Nobody cares about Vasanthan and Siragugal, his team of graduates, who promise a healthy government to people. Ashwin and Renu learn about Vasanthan's election campaign, and they and the entire Dina Anjal team extend their support to the campaign, covering it extensively, much to the chagrin of Aalavandhan and the Chief Minister (CM) Yogeswaran. One night, Siragugal organises a campaign meeting. While photographing the event, Ashwin receives a text message from Saro that there is a bomb underneath the stage where Vasanthan is speaking. Ashwin manages to save Vasanthan just before the bomb explodes. Later, Ashwin finds Saro mortally wounded near the blast site. Saro struggles to tell something to Ashwin and Renu before she dies. Ashwin, through a video clip recorded by another photographer, discovers that Saro was intentionally killed. He later notices a resemblance between the Naxalite bank robbery leader and this unknown killer.
A few days later, Renu notices that Vasanthan's photograph in their newspaper was cut from a college class photograph, where Ashwin is also present. Confronted by Renu, Ashwin reveals that Vasanthan is his former collegemate and best friend, adding that he is wholeheartedly supporting Vasanthan's campaign. Vasanthan's party wins the election, and Vasanthan becomes the CM. He orders the release of 20 Naxalites on Republic Day, citing humanity. Shocked on hearing this news, Ashwin rushes to the secretariat to meet Vasanthan. In Vasanthan's office, Ashwin notices that the Naxalite leader who killed Saro is there, talking with Vasanthan. Ashwin airs his grievances to Vasanthan, who ignores him. Ashwin follows the leader to his hideout.
At the same time, Vasanthan orders the police to go kill the Naxalites at their hideout, and the commandos surround the perimeter of that place. Ashwin, already at the hideout, confronts the Naxalite leader Kadhir, and learns from him that Vasanthan made a deal with the Naxalites to help him win the election. They orchestrated events to win people's sympathy. In the same vein, they had planted the bomb. Saro had uncovered the truth about Vasanthan but was fatally assaulted by him before she could reveal his intentions to anyone. Ashwin realises that Saro had tried to warn him and Renu about Vasanthan's true character before dying and that now Vasanthan is double-crossing the Naxalites and planning to kill them as a show of achievement.
Ashwin records the confession and sends it to Renu, who plans to publish this story. Vasanthan then arrives and kills Kadhir. He tries to kill Ashwin, who kills him using a landmine. Realising that Vasanthan's party members are innocent, Ashwin persuades Renu not to expose Vasanthan because his party members would suffer for naïvely supporting him. Renu instead publishes a false article saying Vasanthan sacrificed himself fighting the Naxalites. Ashwin and Renu submit their resignations to their editor, S. Krishnakumar "Krish" after telling him the truth about Vasanthan. Krish, however, decides to preserve Vasanthan's reputation and rejects their resignations.